19 Things I Learned Running "The Internet's Best Newsletter" In 2023
Plus, lunch with Emily at Pal's Sandwiches
EDMONTON - Emily tells me she likes when the newsletter gets personal.
We’re seated at the counter of Pal’s Sandwiches, just off Whyte Ave, with the few remaining crumbs of today’s lunch.
Focaccia Chicken Club.
Cajun Shrimp Po Boy.
Two bowls of broccoli cheddar soup.
We spent most of the meal catching up, talking about work, talking about the weather. She made the mistake of telling me she reads Human Pursuits, so now we’re talking about that.
I asked her what’s been working, and what hasn’t been. She tells me she doesn’t read every interview. “Some of the people you interview are too cool for me,” she says.
Secretly, I feel the same. Which, I think, is kind of the whole point.
As I often say, the newsletter is free, but that doesn’t mean it’s cheap. There has to be some reward for the lost nights and early mornings – something besides the constant sense of creative fulfillment, and the adoration of hundreds of adoring subscribers.
While I’m the first to admit that my interviews are meandering and sometimes random, the truth is I learned a lot talking to people this year. The “gift of gab” keeps on giving.
And so, here’s a list of things I learned these past 12 months…
– Kate Lindsay, who had a big year after deciding to focus on her newsletter full-time, gave me a lot of direction when she told me the most important thing is to be consistent. “Every time you put something out you’ll get even one or two more followers,” she said “And the bigger you get the more your followership grows because people forward or share the content.” Hard to argue with that.
– If Kate is my sister in newsletter crime, then Bandsplain’s Yasi Salek is my straight-up mother. While the whole interview is essential reading, what struck me most was Yasi’s ability to accept or reject criticism judiciously. As she loves to say “It is not illegal to not listen to the program.” I tried to channel that by reminding myself this is a *FREE* newsletter.
– Jason Tate, who created AbsolutePunk.net, made the point that as online communities scale, chaos often ensues. His current site, Chorus.fm, was created to cater to a smaller group of people and provide his life with a sense of “equilibrium,” something I think we could all use.
– On that note, I’ll Call You Tomorrow’s Raeland Mendoza reminded me many times this year that staying small - both in scale or actual geographical setting - allows you to take bigger swings. For him, that means staying in Edmonton and taking on interesting collaborations without worrying about “competition or super high overhead.”
– Fun fact: the first time I chatted with producer Chris Walla, I spent so much time talking about Tegan and Sara I forgot to ask him any questions about his old band, Death Cab for Cutie, and had to request a second interview. That first go-round, he mentioned that he bakes playtime into his production schedules, opportunities to “make a huge mess and maybe have nothing to show for it” because he thinks “it tends to be really clarifying.” It’s why he’s the best.
– At the same time, Chris mentioned in our second interview that the best idea doesn’t always win. “If the artist doesn’t believe in it, or can’t go for it…Then you can only push on it so far.” This applies to life outside the Hall of Justice, too.
– The Bravo Extended Universe got a little bigger this year, as former haters learned to embrace the network’s chaotic brand of television, courtesy of the ‘Scandoval’ cheating scandal. But while people like to portray Andy Cohen as some sort of Svengali, reality TV expert Brian Moylan told me the executive producer and host is one of many voices in the room. “When there’s a racism scandal on Vanderpump, a show he has literally nothing to do with, people call on him to fire cast members. It’s not his job!” A good reminder that decisions are often made by committees.
– Andy Cohen may not run the world but chatting with Amanda Mull reminded me that consumerism really does. At least for now. “Seeing [consumerism] as a system imposed on us, and not the natural order of things, might make us less individualistic, and more community-minded,” she told me.
– Mitchell Wojcik could probably write an amazing self-help book off his (borrowed) idea “You can’t fight the negative.” Whether it’s photographs or newsletters, “Whatever you’ve shot is what you’ve shot and that’s what it looks like… [You] have to work with it.” It’s what makes the work interesting.
– Somewhat related, author and photographer Dan Ozzi was a source of incidental inspiration this year when he told me about his early days photographing people in front of Danzig’s house. “It literally took four years of doing this until I realized it might be something. Sometimes the work tells you what it is, you know?”
– The incomparable Kim Taylor Benett, meanwhile, reminded me that it’s more than alright to get vulnerable with your interview subjects when she told me about the time she cried in front of director Michel Gondry. “‘The people I interview make incredible art. They put their heart and soul into it. It’s grounded in emotion.’ And I’m really emotional.”
– New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman was preaching to the choir when he said the world needs more gatekeepers. “Nobody thinks the best 10 movies of the week are the top 10 box office movies. It’s obvious! And the same thing is true for comedy… Strong critics help foster a better discourse and that helps the scene, whether it’s visual art, music, or comedy.” Amen!
– By that same token, Toronto actor and TikTok star Bryan Nothling says we need to stop using view counts as a metric of success: “How do you know that that was a positive view? You don’t. You don’t know anything about that. They could hate it. They could hate it and then share it with a hundred of their friends and say ‘Look at this terrible thing.’”
– Artist and author Brad Phillips gave creatives, including myself, permission to take a breather now and then: “I know a lot of artists who are in the studio every day, but for me, more time is spent looking, reading, and thinking about stuff… Over time it starts to cohere in my brain and something comes from it.”
– Comedian Josh Gondelman told me a silly and sweet story about the time he played a cafeteria in East Texas that I think about constantly. The show took place one morning at the school’s student centre. There were maybe two dozen people there. Josh asked one guy “Oh, are you here to watch the show?” and the guy replied, “Nah man, this is just where they put the chairs today.” Whenever I’m having a bad day, I compare it to doing an hour of standup in front of a completely disinterested crowd. It helps.
– If you’ve read Dan and I’s Human Pursuits Radio column recently, you know another thing I thought about this year was track listings. Specifically, Ratboys singer and guitarist Julia Steiner’s idea that “Track two is where you win [somebody’s attention].” It’s where you really hook them.
– Chris Payne accomplished a quiet dream of mine when he published his incredible emo oral history Where Are Your Boys Tonight? While our conversation was mostly focused on the genre’s lore, he mentioned that labels like Victory Records relied on unpaid teenagers to run their street teams. Human Pursuits is all about fair compensation, and yet I can’t argue that “promoting an indie record label is probably a better use of your time than, like, the mundane after-school extra-curricular activities you do for your college application.” Simply put, how bad do you want it?
– As someone commented when I published my interview with photographer Deanie Chen: “Is there anything she can’t do?” Whenever I felt burnt out in 2023, I thought about Deanie sitting shrimp-shaped on some bus in middle America, living, laughing, and loving her way across Adobe Lightroom while also juggling her future as a lawyer. If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is.
– The world’s tallest music editor, Tom Breihan, reminded me that having an audience of any size is a privilege when he mentioned Stereogum users have turned his three-word response (“I’ve heard it”) into a running joke.
***
Emily and I pay our bills and make our way to the door. It’s two days before Christmas and there is hardly any snow on the ground. Edmonton is shining like a tiger’s eye.
We hug and I’ll tell her I’ll see her in the new year.
Like everyone else in my life, I should have also told her “Thanks.”
Comments, criticisms, collaborations? Bang the inbox – ethan@humanpursuits.org